


Candlelight

by ElegantSufficiency



Series: the Black Queen trilogy outtakes [1]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Canon Character History, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-05
Updated: 2013-12-05
Packaged: 2018-01-03 13:22:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 954
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1070950
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElegantSufficiency/pseuds/ElegantSufficiency
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>“When I’m afraid at-”</i>
  <br/>
  <i>“I never said I was afraid,” Regina huffed, taking her hands back.</i>
  <br/>
  <i>“I never said you were. But, when I’m afraid at night, I light a candle." </i>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Part of <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/series/59724">the Black Queen</a> universe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Candlelight

**Author's Note:**

> In this, Regina is fourteen and Delia is seventeen.
> 
> For anyone interested, how I view [Delia](http://voice.fan.tv/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Katrina-Law-e1384988905740.jpg)
> 
> This came about as I'm writing chapter six and wouldn't leave me until I wrote it down.

Regina awoke, a scream on her tongue swallowed back. She could see nothing but darkness. Everlasting, consuming darkness that chilled her with the winter air.

Sitting up, she wanted to push away her blankets as if they were a cage rather than warmth against the cold. But her nightgown wasn’t enough and quickly she buried her self back under the blankets, trying not to scream again as frustration bit at her throat and eyes.

In her head, she could hear her drumming heart, pounding over her gasping breath. She twisted and moved, feeling the fading dream prickle against her wet neck before it slipped over her mind until all she could remember was darkness and fear. No, not fear; terror.

“My lady?” Regina yelped before a held candlelight revealed her handmaiden’s face. The girl’s features sharp in the glow, but not yet finished maturing. In the firelight, her freckles were unseen, blurred by the shadows, but the usual dark eyes, softer than Regina’s own, flickered gold from the flame.

“Delia?” Regina’s voice rasped.

“Yes,” the girl smiled, stepping forward through the shadows. Her voice was deeper than Regina’s young voice, sounding far older than both their ages combined. “I heard you scream.”

“I’m fine,” Regina huffed. Delia was only a few years older than herself, but where she was of marrying age, Regina was a mere child in both stature and mind. Regina didn’t intend to show more evidence of their separated age. “You may leave,” she told her.

Delia smiled, sitting down on the bed’s edge, to Regina’s irritation. The young noble folded her arms, glaring as the candle was set down on her elven crafted bedside table. “The wax will mark the table,” she accused.

“So it shall,” Delia said. “And when it does, I shall clean it.”

Regina’s mouth opened to argue, but nothing came out. Swallowing, she tried again. “Why are you here?” The question came out as an accusation rather than curiosity. None of her other ladies came when she cried out in the night, not since Eloise had left to marry when Regina was little. After a time, she had assumed that her ladies didn’t hear, or perhaps didn’t care for her night terrors.

Delia smiled, her lips, neither pink nor brown, curved to reveal a glimpse of white teeth. “I believe I explained that my lady.”

“It doesn’t do well to question your lady,” she retaliated. Delia chuckled.

“Well,” she hummed, “I never seem to do well. Perhaps I enjoy questioning my lady.”

“Why?”

“To make her think. If everyone agreed with what you say, how would you know if you were wrong?” Delia’s head tilted at her curiously, but Regina was struck dumb by the bold answer.

Never before had _anyone_ told her as such. Only superiors were allowed to question, not...not... “You can’t say that!” she told her.

“But I did.” Delia lent forward, still smiling at her. Carefully, she took Regina’s hands and squeezed them gently. Still dumb, Regina looked down at the warm hands. She hadn’t noticed her skin had been so cold until the hot touch. “Do you have nightmares, my lady?”

“Yes.”

“Would you like to speak on them?”

She didn’t dare raise her eyes, afraid that any more contact would have her secrets rush from her mouth. “No.”

Delia’s smile faded, but didn’t fall away. Turning, she moved the candlelight closer. “When I’m afraid at-”

“I never said I was afraid,” Regina huffed, taking her hands back.

“I never said you were. But, when I’m afraid at night, I light a candle. So, when I awake, I can look to the light and know that there is nothing in the room that can hurt me. There’s only shadows and when the sun rises, the shadows will fade.”

Regina frowned, looking to the flame, “But...what if there _is_ something in the dark, that you can’t always see. What if...” she frowned.

“What if...?”

“It doesn’t matter,” she said.

“Yes, it does. Tell me, perhaps I have an answer.” Regina shook her head, her hands curling around her blankets. “Well, if there was something in the shadows of my room, it would be good if I knew someone to sit by and protect me.”

Regina’s body sagged, her hands unclenching loosely at the answer. “Oh,” she whispered. “I see.”

Delia laughed at her, “ _I_ can protect you, my lady.”

“No, you can’t.”

“No, not always, but from the shadows I will.” She stood up again, and gestured for Regina to move over in the bed. The girl blinked, confused for a moment before she shifted. Then, she watched as her handmaiden shifted the blankets, climbing in beside her.

“What are you doing?”

“Protecting you,” she told her. “Here.” Pulling Regina into her arms, she laid back on the bed, her hand steady on the girl’s waist. “Sleep my lady, I will protect you from the nightmares.”

“How?”

“I have a dagger.”

Regina giggled for the first time, then smiled. Tilting her head up so she could see the dark eyes, warm with the golden glow, she asked, “Will you be here when I wake?”

“Do you wish for me to be here?”

Regina shrugged. At the movement, Delia leaned forward and pressed her lips to the girl’s head. Regina’s eyes squeezed shut, drinking in the comfort before it disappeared. Settling down on the Delia’s shoulder, she smiled softly. “You smell like outside,” she murmured.

“And what does 'outside' smell like?”

“Horses, flowers and rain, and mud, and…” Regina yawned, “Alive.”

“I smell alive, do I?”

“Yes,” the word was whispered, almost drugged as Regina breathed in. Delia smelt alive, there was no other word for it.

“Goodnight, my lady.”

“Goodnight.”


End file.
